Ex-Metra CEO memo has explosive new revelations regarding Mike Madigan

BY ROSALIND ROSSI Transporation Reporter July 12, 2013 4:18PM

House Speaker Michael Madigan not only lobbied Metra to give a pay hike to a Metra worker whose family had worked on Madigan’s political campaigns but also “reportedly” tried to get someone else hired at the suburban rail agency, a newly released memo from ex-Metra CEO Alex Clifford indicates.

According, to the memo, Clifford said he was informed that he was being forced out of his job “for not complying with Speaker Madigan’s requests for politically motivated employment actions. “

Clifford informed the board in the memo that Metra Board Chairman Brad O’Halloran and board member Larry Huggins were concerned that failure to comply with Madigan’s requests would “result in Metra losing future funding.”

The explosive memo goes far beyond a description of it provided by Metra Board outside counsel Joe Gagliardo on Thursday to the House Mass Transit Committee, even though the Committee’s chair, state Rep. Deb Mell, asked Gagliardo at least twice if he had summarized all the contents of the memo.

Only two of 11 Metra Board members showed up Thursday to explain why Metra Board members approved a 26-month, maximum $718,000 separation agreement with Clifford when he had eight months left on his contract. The lone Metra board dissenter, Jack Schaffer, Thursday told the House Committee the payout was largely “hush money.’’

Another new revelation in the memo is the accusation that O’Halloran wanted two Metra employees fired. Clifford wrote that the intervention was improper because hiring and firing was his responsibility.

Madigan’s spokesman was not immediately available.

O’Halloran and Huggins issued statements denying Clifford’s charges.

“As I testified yesterday, I deny Mr. Clifford’s allegations, but, out of an abundance of caution, immediately forwarded all of his claims to the [state] Inspector General,” O’Halloran said. “I have never intervened with Metra’s staff regarding any jobs or contracts. The Board attempted a fair and unbiased review process for Mr. Clifford that was upended by his threatened legal strategy, which resuled in the settlement.”

“I categorically deny Clifford’s allegations,” Huggins said.

Meanwhile, RTA Chair John Gates Jr. Friday asked Clifford to appear before the RTA on Wednesday, July 17, amid an RTA review of whether Clifford’s June 21 separation agreement was “fiscally prudent.”

O’Halloran addressed the RTA at Gate’s invitation on Wednesday, but shared far fewer details about the Clifford memo with the RTA than he and the Metra Board’s attorney did the following day, before the House Mass Transit Committee.